Tuesday, February 25, 2014

China feels genuinely upset with the United States over the meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama in the White House in Washington last weekend, but, nonetheless, will not make a mountain out of a molehill by making it an issue in the bilateral relations. This just about sums up Beijing’s strong criticism of the meeting and its growing confidence that the Tibetan movement is way past its prime and cannot any longer pose a serious diplomatic challenge internationally.

Of course, the US has a long history of involvement in Tibet, which according to the Chinese account, was a root cause of the 1959 rebellion. China alleged that the CIA-trained cadres and weapons were airdropped in Tibet to participate in the rebellion and to escort the Dalai Lama to India. The US interference continued through the 1960s but following the normalization of Sino-American relationship, it took a different form and in the period since then got suffused with “public diplomacy”, one vector being the periodic reception accorded to the Dalai Lama by senior US politicians and another devolving upon the US’ substantial financial support for him. READ MORE

Monday, February 24, 2014

Erbil and Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss bilateral relations and the sale of Chinese weapons to Iraq, only three days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the country, in part to discuss arms sales to Iraq.Both visits come as the Iraqi army struggles to contain insurgents in the volatile Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where it has sought the help of local tribal factions, some of whom have chosen to side against the government forces.In a news conference with his Chinese counterpart, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the two discussed a number of issues including the purchase of Chinese arms. MORE

Friday, February 21, 2014

"The White House National Security Council said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at the White House on Friday in a show of concern about China's human rights practices.

China meanwhile, calls the Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, maintains he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet and denies advocating violence."

Sunday, February 16, 2014

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police killed several "terrorists" who launched an attack Friday in the latest spate of violence in Xinjiang, a restive region in the country's far west, state media said.
The assailants were riding motorbikes and driving cars that carried liquefied natural gas cylinders they intended to use as suicide bombs, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
They attacked a team of police who gathered at the gate of a park for a routine patrol in Aksu, a prefecture in Xinjiang, and police fatally shot several of them, Xinhua said.
An official from the Xinjiang government who refused to give his name confirmed the Xinhua report, but said he had no more details to offer.
Calls to the region's police and Communist Party propaganda department rang unanswered.
It was the latest in a series of attacks pointing to growing unrest in the sprawling region of Xinjiang, home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule among parts of the native Muslim Uighur population who want more autonomy from Beijing. Recent clashes, including an attack on police last month, have left dozens of people dead.

After the Virginia legislature passed a bill to have “East Sea” written alongside “Sea of Japan” in public school textbooks last week, efforts to include “East Sea” in textbooks are spreading to New York and New Jersey, the US states on the East Coast with the largest populations of Korean-Americans.
Rea

Saturday, February 8, 2014

The announcement that China has cooperated with South Korea to open a memorial hall in Harbin in honor of Ahn Jung-geun, the independence activist who in 1909 assassinated H0 Ito, Japanese colonial governor of Korea (then a Japanese protectorate), symbolizes the historical obstacles to forward-looking Japan-South Korea relations.

The ensuing controversy reflects divergent views of history - one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter

"China is willing to offer continued assistance for Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction, especially in personnel training, and encourage Chinese companies to invest in Afghanistan, he said, while urging Kabul to create a safe environment for bilateral cooperation.

China is ready to strengthen cooperation with Afghanistan in fighting the "three evil forces" of separatism, extremism and terrorism as well as transnational crime, Xi added.

China, he stressed, will unswervingly support Afghanistan's efforts in safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and back an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned national reconciliation process.